If you have a traditional Canadian bank mortgage, you can pay that mortgage off early, there is just usually a prepayment penalty of 3 months interest.

Aside from the traditional example of acquiring a 2-4 unit property, there are other creative methods of house hacking.

Once complete, the investor has a property that is worth more than the purchase price + rehab costs.We've got more "skin" in the process than an RE agent as we have to rehab to get a tenant and than continue to manage the property and tenant to cashflow for the investor.This model seems to be growing in popularity with investors versus traditional turnkey.

If it doesn't work, I'll just do it the traditional way?  

They gave me their sob story about not being able to buy traditionally due to immigration status, they told me how hard they work and how excited they were to finally be able to own their home after 12 years of renting.

For Buy and Hold strategies, this method is far more superior than traditional financing of properties.

Rental Demand:While Plano has traditionally been a strong rental market, recent data might indicate some softening.

Would traditional "self management" tend to not qualify?

Why I Believe Striving to Build Passive Income is OverratedThis may seem like a disingenuous statement coming from a passive income guy, BUT, I believe that those looking to build sustainable look term wealth would be better off to downplay passive income.Passive income has a role, a large role, but one best utilized when a certain level of wealth has been achieved, and the holder of said wealth is looking to preserve capital and live off the income generated by passive investments.I hear many relatively new real estate investors say that their goal is to acquire enough real property to replace their earned (W-2 or 1099 or Sch C) income with the income be generated by their investments.  

You could also buy a traditional property and hire a property manager, but in this scenario you end up paying property manager fees (and likely higher-than-you-like financing costs to replace the debt from your condos).